A ROW has erupted among 130 villagers that were resettled at Redwood Farm in Umguza, about 50km from Bulawayo along Victoria Falls Road, over farming plots.

SILAS NKALA
STAFF REPORTER

The new settlers are reportedly trying to grab fields of those that were resettled earlier.

Fifty-nine villagers were initially resettled at the farm and had their fields pegged by the District Development Fund (DDF) and Agricultural Extension (Agritex) officials.

An additional 71 families were resettled at the same farm later.

The farm has four villages and Village 2 kraal head Joseph Sibanda yesterday confirmed the showdown among villagers over fields.

Sibanda said the most targeted area was his village and indicated that although the villagers resettled later were making plans to grab the fields from his subjects, they had not yet made a move for them.

He said the troublesome villagers were resettled in the 90-hectare Redwood irrigation scheme, which was not functional at that time.

“When it was resuscitated, they were removed and left with no fields anymore. They were at one point given farming land at the farm, but they did not want the plots,” Sibanda said.

“They are engaging Agritex officials to push for the sharing of our pieces of land yet Redwood is so big that they can get fields anywhere in it. It is sad that they now want our fields and we do not agree with that.”

Sibanda said they had not yet reported the matter to the Lands ministry, but had engaged villagers in question in a bid to knock sense into their heads.

He said an Agritex officer would be meeting with villagers today over the issue and hoped the matter would be resolved once and for all.